So each year it’s a mad scramble to get done ALL THE THINGS before mid-December, when we fly to Florida and spend 10 days with my amazing family. This year was even crazier because I had found tickets to a concert I wanted to go to that just so happened to be the night before we left. July Laura said, oh how fun! Let’s buy the tickets. We’ll go for my birthday celebration. This will be a great way to…
Each year, the neighborhood where Mike and I met has a tree lighting ceremony to kick off the Christmas season. There are live musicians. There are carolers in matching sweaters. There are horse-drawn carriages and hot chocolate and light up toys and balloon animals and magic in the air. There is a gorgeous Christmas tree that they light up after a (poorly-executed) countdown. And most importantly, there is SANTA. Which means that littles come with their parents from miles around…
So even though we’re a week away from Thanksgiving, we took Caroline to meet The Big Guy. SANTA CLAUS! I realize this is not the typical time for your little one to meet the man in the jolly red suit, but when you have out of town plans for Turkey Day AND you have family to visit in Florida starting in mid-December, you realize quickly that you’re running out of weekends so you do crazy things like get all dolled…
Election Day! Virginians headed to the polls to elect ourselves a governor. Mike and I brought Caroline because it is never too early to introduce the concept of civic responsibility being appreciative of the democracy we all enjoy (most of the time). She seemed to thoroughly enjoyed her first civic duty opportunity despite the fact that it was during a downpour and it made her dinner a 1/2 hour late. She especially enjoyed the part where she got to gnaw…
Kay Kay and Pa came for a visit this past weekend, just as Caroline was getting over her feverish week and we were wrapping up The Longest Week of Our Lives. What is it about having a sick baby that makes the days crawl by? And more importantly, how can we channel that to happen during the weeks we are on vacation? They insisted on taking care of her on Friday rather than her going to daycare. (For those of…
Caroline’s first Halloween was a tremendous success on all fronts! Wellll, most fronts anyway 🙂 I shot out of bed all excited, ready for the fun to start happening. But Halloween is a cruel holiday like that. You have to make it through a day at work pretending like you are not going home to do anything awesome. It’s almost as if everyone is trying to act like they are too cool for this day, and that it doesn’t matter…
I am a goals person. I like checklists, I like plans, I like feeling accomplished when I do something I set out to do. Earlier this week, I decided Sunday would be the day I’d fulfill a good one. My objective for this no-plans-at-all, gorgeous, blue cloudless sky Sunday was to use my very beautiful Marseille blue Le Creuset Dutch oven for The Very First Time. Now, Mike and I received this as a wedding gift from some of our…
Halloween is just around the corner. As for us, we are READY. Our costumes are in. Our candy is here (which may have been a bit premature. We are now dangerously low on candy. Unless you like Peanut M&Ms, which I do not. The 100 Grands, however, were drastically more delicious than than I remember. Or maybe my palette has just become more sophisticated?). Anyway, Mike and I have always loved this holiday. Last year, when I was pregnant with…
Mike and Caroline and I had a grand time at our neighborhood’s annual fall picnic this year. We brought chicken salad and enjoyed getting to know our neighbors better, some of whom are expecting babies early next year! Hands down though, the best was the part when a neighbor insisted on taking pictures of our happy little family. She suggested that we hold up the frame and then thought it would be HILARIOUS if there was a frame within a…
Ahhhh, Saturday! My favorite day of the week. And a fall Saturday, on top of that. Today was one for the books. We had a lovely celebratory lunch at Pi Pizza, enjoyed our annual neighborhood Fall Picnic, and most importantly, we expanded our family by one. This new family member just so happened to jump into the cart at Costco, which Mike happened to be pushing while Caroline and I were in the Ladies Room. We came in to Costco…